This invention relates generally to oil level dipstick measuring devices. More particularly, this invention relates to a dipstick measuring device equipped with an integral wiping system.
Dipstick measuring devices which measure the oil level in the crankcase of an internal combustion engine of the type described herein are well known and used in a variety of applications such as automobiles, trucks, buses, farming and construction equipment. Additionally, there are many smaller engines that are used in lawn mowers, garden tractors and landscape equipment. Regardless of the size of the engine, all of these engines have the common need for checking the crankcase oil level on a frequent basis to assure that the oil levels are sufficient to protect the engine parts when operating.
Most prior art dipstick systems require the use of a wiping medium to wipe the dipstick clean and then, of course, there is a need to dispose of the wiping medium or cloth. As is well known, the dipstick is inserted into the dipstick tube, pulled out for visual inspection and then reinserted into the engine. The above can also be a messy procedure for the operator. This fact leads to a new problem that now exists in that many motorists self fuel their vehicles. It will be appreciated that these motorists are reluctant to check the oil level in the engine for fear of soiling their clothes.
Still another problem is that the used motor oil and wiping media eventually find their way to sanitary landfills or must be shipped to redemption centers for expensive processing (that is, the wiping media, i.e., "oily" rags or paper towels must be processed).
It is known that motor oil can seep into water aquifers via these landfills and can be detrimental to the environment. According to EPA Publication 625-R9401D, entitled Environmental Regulations and Technologies, Managing Used Oil, Page 4 " . . . 1 gallon of used motor oil seeping into an aquifer can contaminate as much as 1,000,000 gallons of water . . . ". Thus, it can be seen that the simple act of periodically checking the oil level of an internal combustion engine can lead to a sizable environmental problem. This is a particularly significant problem given the large number of vehicles (i.e., close to two hundred million registered vehicles in 1993 alone with the total number of non registered engines in existence being many times the number of registered vehicles), and therefore, the potential environmental impact being extremely great.
In fact, this environmental impact can actually be quantified as follows. First, assume that each vehicle engine oil level is checked once a month. It is known that a typical dipstick retains four drops of 10-40 motor oil which equates to 0.1 cc of oil with is equal to 0.00002642 gallons. The amount of oil placed into the environment as a result of conventional dipstick measuring is therefore the amount of oil wiped off per check, multiplied by the frequency of checks per year multiplied by the quantity of total vehicles.
Therefore, 0.00002642 gallons per check times 12 checks per year times 200,000,000 vehicles is equal to 63,408 gallons of oil per year which potentially reaches landfills each year with the potential contamination of one million gallons of water per gallon of waste oil or a total of 63,408,000,000 gallons of water contaminated every year. In other words, more than 63 billion gallons of water could be saved from contamination as a result of the prior art method of checking crank case oil levels. It should be reiterated that this figure is actually much higher when all the non registered engines as well as equipment engines that exist are added to the foregoing calculations.
Although there have been attempts in the prior art to provide some sort of mechanism to self wipe the dipstick to save time and provide convenience in using a self-cleaning mechanism, all of these prior art devices have exhibited problems and deficiencies.
Prior art examples of self-wiping dipstick measurement devices include U.S. Pat. No. 1,814,075 to Burkhardt; U.S. Pat. No. 2,127,835 to Tower and U.S. Pat. No. 4,110,909 to Mayr et al; British Patent No. 779,626; French Patent No. 1,090,791 and German Patent No. 2,610,164.
However, all of these prior art devices suffer from certain deficiencies and limitations; and there is a clear need for improved self-wiping dipstick measuring machines.
That is, it would appear that in lieu of modern environmental concerns, economy and convenience, there is a perceived need for an improved automatic wiping dipstick in the art.